I have a long history with the Twin Towers going back to the late 1970’s when they were only a few years old. I have footage of them from my apartment window on Governor’s Island elsewhere on this site in color back then. I was there in NYC when the towers fell and interviewing for a job on the 76th floor of one of them a few weeks before September 11. I document that on this site in great detail as well. I happened to be at this event just as the last few windows were being put on the Freedom Tower and the museum was open for the survivors and first responders. A friend of mine actually got tickets for immediately after but it didn’t work out for my schedule. The thought of him suggesting that I go with him was very touching, though, as I don’t get back to NYC all that often these days.
Category Archives: Travel
Christopher Street – The Historical Gay Ground Zero
Much has changed on Christopher Street since I moved away from NYC, but I still have a ton of nostalgia for this area which was so formative in my coming out process. I still feel a sense of strong envy for those who live in such a dynamic area and in the amazing buildings that will survive centuries more than they already have. Fortunately the streets were closed for a vendor fair when I waltzed down and took this video with my friend Steve.
Phoenix Family Reunion
Alex, Jesus and I (with the Yorkies) went to see Rose, Sara Rose, Erick and Kristal. I also got to see a few of my friends from years ago — Garrison Singer and Brian Holland.
Monte Whining in Tempe
2014 January Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Beach Videos:
Coral Gables/Coconut Grove:
Little Havana:
Family gatherings for New Year’s, etc.:
Miami Holocaust Memorial:
Drag Queens on Ocean Drive:
Lazybear
My friend Roy and I drove back down the coast (although he slept most of the way) to get home from Guerneville, after a loop around Armstrong Woods early in the morning. The dogs have been there several times before, but I always try to find some beach time for them, and this was no exception. This was a new lookout for me. I’m always impressed by the beauty near Bodega Bay, and in Sonoma County, even though Highway 1 is tortuous and treacherous in the best of weather conditions.
Pictures here with me is my friend Ray/Ramon at the closing party for Lazybear. Guerneville vendors usually have clever signage during this event, but this one below was the best one I think I’ve ever seen.
Un Pochuchedru du Calabria
If you ever want to see my relatives in Italy laugh, speak to them in dialect. They are tending not to speak it in the newer generations themselves, but to hear ME, a straniero (“foreigner”), speak even a word or two, makes them roll over with laughter. To demonstrate to people how dialects are truly other languages, the title of this blog is a phonetic (since I’ve never seen Calabrese written) of the translation for “A little piece of Calabria” which in Italian would be “un piccolo pezzo di Calabria.”
In addition to my relatives, I spent a lot of time with their dogs and cats because this was getting toward the end of my trip and I really missed my Yorkies, who I had only seen once live from Rome with Skype and spoke to noticing that they recognized my voice. It was great to see most of my relatives there, and I got pictures of most of them, but a few of my uncles and aunts are having major health problems and are in the throes of their treatments. I also got to see two of my newest cousins, the daughters of Giusi and Ramona. It was strange being in Italy for the first time in my daughter’s life without my daughter there, but seeing my Mom and grandmother is important, although I see my mom throughout the year as she lives in Hayward near me when she’s not in Italy. It was nice to see both my mom and her mom at the beach too.
When in Roma…Boy Did I Fool Them!
I got to feel like a native Italian doing some grocery shopping to cook in my little kitchen, speaking the language and showing off how much better I am at it than most Americans, although I couldn’t speak it as well as the black, east Indian and Asian people I saw walking around in Rome who are the true Italians of the future as they live, breathe and literally eat their ways into the culture, which if one really thinks about it, was always multi-cultural. As you will see, I had to take a sign in Chinese on the street I was staying on. I even learned how to make espresso with the very clear illustrations in English on how to do that with the little espresso machine the apartment came with.
I did get to the Coliseum, as you will see, which happens to be by the nicknamed “Gay Street”, There are no official gay establishments to my knowledge in Rome, but there are some gay parties in various venues. Gay Street and the Ice Cream Bears establishment where I’ve been to before and had to see again, was walking distance from where I stayed on Via di Porta Maggiore. The only video I took was of the piazza inside the building where I stayed. You wouldn’t necessarily think that there were several elevators and hundreds of units with very high ceilings beyond these very plain doors facing the street, but the buildings aren’t that many stories high, after all.
I did stop by one of the more famous “gelato” parlors and got lots of good coffee while I was in town, not really getting an explanation but being secretly happy that there are NO STARBUCKS in Italy, not even in the airports.
I did Bear Monday, which was very well attended for a non-holiday Monday night, but some of the people I knew from online or would know online or who saw me on Growlr last year even came up to me there and knew who I was. I also made some friends who lived directly across the street from where I stayed, and it was helpful to use their electricity and internet when I had a fire in my apartment. There was an apparently electrical overload with the air conditioner when I went out for the evening, so there was some charred wall by where my head would have been. When I got back the electricity was off so I just went to sleep and texted the landlord, who was actually just next door. Meeting them and making friends with lots of the local Italian men was a great experience. I do feel very much more at home in Rome now that I ever did. The city itself used to intimidate with its crime and corruption, even when I had gone there with my ex wife and tried to buy something from a street vendor. Now I realize I have to be like a savvy New Yorker rather than a gullible American tourist, and truly let my passionate culture come out, even if I am only 5/8ths!
Renting a Pis…In Barcelona
The Brits say “flat” and the Spanish say “piso” (although that also means floor), but be careful when you say you want to buy someone’s PIS in Catalan, because that’s how they say apartment. I did so on Airbnb this summer. I was remarkably lucky to be right downtown and have a world class view, reminiscent of my childhood when my dad got an apartment on Governor’s Island overlooking the World Trade Center/Twin Towers, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty in panorama…with ZERO rent.
Many of you heard of how I was bragging to other Anglophones on the train from the Barcelona airport how well I knew the city and then when I changed trains to get to Estacio Sants I forgot all of my clothes and a few other non-critical items in the overhead and, despite filing a report with the help of my Airbnb host, I was not able to find it. I only had the clothes on my person and lost all the other clothes I was planning to use during my five weeks of travel, although I was only half way through it at this point. My tablet, my ipod, beard trimmer and various other items were gone forever. Fortunately my documents and critical computer and camera components were all in my briefcase which I kept by my side. I have great friends in BCN who helped me right away to get shirts and another sack. Xavi and his friends also helped me get to a discount store to get a bunch of underwear and socks before things closed on Saturday (as nothing would be open Sunday). I also had a couple of great guys help me out with suggestions of what to see that I had never really checked out up close in my previous trips. Those photos are showcased here. In particular the. I also got in a lot of good relaxation and fun with the great nightlife they have there. The bear beach was fun too. It’s called Chernobyl. As you will see the decaying factory is why it is so nicknamed. It’s just north of the city, although there are great beaches in the city itself.
Berlin Bitte…but I’m not Bitter
Nein. Not only am I not bitter, I’m very grateful to my friend Thilo for showing me the amazing history and culture of Berlin, to the extent that was possible in a few days. Not knowing just how far we would be walking I got blisters the first day, but I did remember to wear my more comfortable shoes when we resumed our intense sightseeing. In these pictures there are a few buildings that survived the bombings at the end of WWII (very little of the city did). There are also wonderful contrasts between the eastern and western parts of Berlin, although very little of the actual wall remains and with each passing year the ability to recognize one side or the other will get harder. There are these cute little cars they have for rent which are made out of some kind of treated cardboard. Bears are the symbol of the city of Berlin (like peaches for Atlanta and apples for New York).
I didn’t even know that the TV tower existed in Berlin, but I went up it. There were also a few war memorials, including the Holocaust Memorial which I made sure not to smile while posing in (it is indeed somber, but abstract). I just didn’t have the energy to get to the gay memorial for the war. I did make it to Brandenburg Gate, where Michael Jackson’s baby was dangled in the nearby hotel, and where they were celebrating a French holiday, as that was part of the French-occupied Berlin. You will see the Sony center which is designed to look like Mount Fuji, and nearby there was a Lego giraffe. Lots of interesting things and some poignant commemorations to the people who lost their lives attempting to cross that damned wall that was there for decades.
In addition to getting a lot of culture in, I also enjoyed the gay night life mostly in Schoenberg, where I stayed. I was trying to pronounce things in German, even if I will never speak it. I also translated successfully the sign I’m standing below which advertises Teddybears as “a friend for life.” Like Iceland, pretty much everyone spoke English, which was almost too easy for an Anglophone, but on the last day when I was anxious to find my way back to the airport alone since Thilo had picked me up and I hardly had paid attention, no one at the closest train station, Wittenbergplatz, claimed they could speak English. In fact, they all told me this IN ENGLISH. Fortunately a nice guy walking around the station who apparently also worked there saw me looking at the maps and asked me in English what I needed and helped me get to the airport in plenty of time.
